Regulatory Reform (March 2010)

The financial crisis that erupted in 2008 damaged our entire economy, eliminated trillions of dollars of wealth for America’s families, harmed businesses, led to higher unemployment and caused foreclosures. Stronger, more vigorous regulation of banks and other financial institutions would have prevented their irresponsible and reckless behavior and is necessary to prevent another market meltdown.

The chairman of the Federal Reserve touched on a very important point last week when he said of Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) regulatory reform legislation, “It makes us essentially the too-big-to-fail regulator.”

Abraham Lincoln once posed the question, “How many legs does a dog have if you call a tail a leg?” Lincoln’s answer was four. A tail is still a tail even if you call it a leg. Perhaps Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the Obama administration can learn a thing or two from Honest Abe.

Most Illinois families have personally experienced the impact of the financial crisis through decreasing values in their retirement savings and homes. In September 2008 when we were at the precipice of financial collapse, the federal government took necessary action to stabilize our financial system and promised the American people that comprehensive regulatory reforms would follow. Lost in the bickering over jurisdictional process has been the broad agreement over fundamental priorities for reform: new regulation for complex financial products, an end to taxpayer bailouts, and better consumer protections. In December, the House of Representatives delivered against this pledge by passing H.R. 4173, The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Bipartisan negotiations on a financial reform bill had been making real progress over the last month, particularly toward truly ending “too big to fail” and replacing it with a strong resolution mechanism that would ensure that failed firms are liquidated. Unfortunately, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) pulled away from this approach at the urging of the Obama administration. His bill misses the mark in several key areas, perhaps none more important than its failure to truly end “too big to fail.”

On Monday evening, the Senate Banking Committee voted out the most significant financial reform legislation since the 1930s. The markup followed many months and countless hours of bipartisan discussions. If enacted, Chairman Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) legislation — like the House bill that passed last December — would help lay a stronger financial foundation for decades to come.